Beauty not forsaken
While Taitung is set among scenic mountains and unpolluted rivers, economic development has always lagged because of the lack of convenient transportation. As a result, large numbers of people have moved out. The beautiful scenery and fertile lands remain, but the lifeblood of the traditional farming community and its culture have been lost.
Duoliang Elementary School used to be located above the station, but in 1999 it merged with another school. It now appears abandoned and looks even more desolate than the station, with empty classrooms, scattered textbooks, and students’ graffiti still on the blackboards. Overlooking the vast Pacific, one recalls the words of ancient poet Tao Yuanming: “Why can’t you come home to tend the fields and gardens overgrown with weeds?”
Cheng Han-wen, current president of the Original-Love Workshop Association, has been engaged in assisting Aboriginal communities for two decades. He has been monitoring the waning population in the area since even before Morakot.
Cheng, former principal of Taitung’s Xinxing Elementary School, noticed a serious problem with the children’s upbringing when he joined the community. With a lack of local job opportunities, most parents had to find work elsewhere, often leaving their children behind. As a result, nearly 70% of students were from single-parent families or were being looked after by grandparents.
“It’s easy for children to go astray without their parents’ guidance. At vulnerable moments, they need direction.” For the sake of the next generation’s future, Cheng became actively engaged in the community, using the resources of the school and the teachers to help the unemployed villagers learn woodcarving skills. The teachers helped to set up a website to sell their products, creating a small but adequate income for the community.
Creating employment opportunities, however, cannot happen overnight. Cheng put forward a philosophy for the children: “To enjoy my school, to love my home; to regard school as a second home.” Children received care at school that they missed out on at home, and benefited from the care of the teachers and tribal elders who tried to set examples for the children to follow.
In 2008, considering the huge cost and time involved in cleaning up fallen trees and branches after typhoons, the Forestry Bureau cooperated with Cheng to establish the Original-Love Woodworking Workshop. Tables and chairs produced by the workshop have won quite a reputation from a number of exhibitions, once selling a record 70-plus items in two days. Their efforts are aimed at reuniting families: it’s hoped that creating more local employment opportunities will encourage people to stay in their hometown.
In 2010, Cheng launched a joint venture with Tzeng Ching-hsien, then director of the Department of Life Sciences at National Tsing Hua University. Together they promoted a plan commissioned by the Forestry Bureau to transform several hundred thousand tons of driftwood into suitable materials for Taitung’s local community industries.
“We tried to rouse the people’s feelings for the land in an attempt to recreate links to past cultural experiences.” Cheng says that a number of valuable mountain trees such as Taiwan cypress (Chamaecyparis taiwanensis), Formosan cypress (C. formosensis), Taiwan incense-cedar (Calocedrus formosana), Formosan michelia (Michelia compressa) and Taiwan zelkova (Zelkova serrata) were washed down to the ocean after the typhoon. If this floating driftwood were left to rot or were burned, it would represent a waste and damage to the ecology.
The Council of Labor Affairs through their Fostering Employment Program provided counseling for management teams, training for foundation members, and subsidies. In 2010, Sunrise Driftwood Workshop, located in the disused Duoliang Elementary School, was established under this program with further assistance from other sources.
Duoliang Elementary is built along a hillside, with upper and lower rows of buildings. Four classrooms in the upper section have been opened up to form a complete production line with all kinds of woodworking equipment strategically placed. The lower row of buildings is used for a showroom and cafe with outdoor seating. Patrons can look out over the beauty of the Pacific Ocean while enjoying their coffee.
Through their woodcarving works, the family history of Aborigines can be passed on, at the same time as seeking new ways of making a living.